In the Civic Center, kids were presented with two free activities, balloon art and face painting. Mandana Moshrefzadeh, a certified balloon artist created a menagerie of balloon animals and tools for the kids. Once kids had their balloon creation, jumped into the face painting line. Carrie Goettlicher and her daughter Marti Goettlicher with Making Faces Mankato stenciled a variety of fantastical images on the faces of hundreds of children.

Six-year-old Abigail Achman had her face painted to resemble a rainbow colored unicorn. The face paint came with a special plastic unicorn horn to complete the look.

Achman said she loved unicorn and she was looking forward to the face paint all day. Her 4-year-old sister Isabell Achman chose a mermaid face paint design.

Face paint artist Carrie Goettlicher said recently the mermaid makeup was the most popular request, but the unicorn was mainstay across her 12-year career.

The Nicollet Public School's Latchkey child care attended the Brown County Fair Friday morning. Many of the kids participated in the Kid's Dance Party hosted by Up All Night DJ. The first requested song the dance party was the "Macerena

“The unicorn never dies,” she said.

Nine-year-old Harley Deree chose the green dragon face paint before collecting a turtle balloon from Moshrefzadeh.

Deree couldn’t decide if her favorite part of the fair was the balloons or the face paint. She was excited to try the carnival rides, “especially the yo-yo swings.”

UP All Night DJ Andy Christensen hosted a special Kid’s Dance party in the Civic Center. Christensen said the dance party started strong with multiple day cares attending the show. He said he planned to play a lot music from Disney movies, but the kids responded to a wide variety of songs. The first song request of the day came from 8-year-old Addison Plath who requested the “Macarena.” Christensen was more than happy to play ’90s era dance song and demonstrate the dance for the kids.

Later in the day, the Dock Dogs competitions began. The competition features dozens of canines competing in a series of water activities including distance jumping, speed retrieval and vertical jumping.

The border collie/whippet mix named Rehab clears 25 feet during his first jump at Dock Dogs.

Dock Dog North Star chapter president Kailey Smith said there were at least 30 dogs registered to compete in the weekend long competition.

The Dock Dogs competition began with distance jumping. Each dog and their handler had 36-foot dock to run and leap into a pool of water. Each dog was given two chances to jump.

One of the early stars of competition was a 2-year old border collie/whippet mix named Rehab, whose first jump of the day was 25 feet, 6 inches. Rehab’s second jump was over 29 feet. The distance records for the dock dogs chapter was 32 feet.

Rehabs owner Luke Wiechman of Maplewood, MN said Rehab only started competing a year ago.

“At first he didn’t like the water and then suddenly it clicked that this was a game,” Wiechman said. “Now he loves it.”

He said the secret to Rehab’s success is he has the speed of a whippet and the intelligence of a border collie.

Dock Dogs is hosting a “Try It” event from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Dog owner, who want to see if their animal can compete in Dock Dogs competition can test them at the dock.

The Dock Dog competitions will continue through Sunday with the distance jumping finals being held 2:30 p.m. Sunday.